Trans-Pacific Partnership Leaders Reaffirm Commitment to Trade Agreement
The leaders of the U.S., Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam are committed to finalizing a “comprehensive, next-generation regional agreement that liberalizes and promotes trade and investment” and addresses new and traditional trade issues, they said in a statement issued Sept. 9 in Vladivostok, Russia. The current round of talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is taking place until Sept. 15 in Leesburg, Va. The parties, which now also include Mexico and Canada, have told negotiators to find pragmatic, creative, flexible and mutually-acceptable solutions to the remaining unresolved issues, they said.
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Negotiators, meanwhile, reported on Sept. 9 that they've made significant progress on many of the items under consideration, including customs and cross-border services. The TPP will have five defining features, they said. There will be full market access, with, among other things, tariffs that will open the parties' industrial goods, agricultural and textiles markets to one another. The negotiating teams are also discussing a regional agreement for a single tariff schedule as well as production and supply chain issues such as connectivity, services, customs cooperation and standards, they said. The talks are edging toward agreement on regulatory and other non-tariff barriers such as goods, industrial and agricultural standards that increasingly are the major barrier companies face in gaining access to foreign markets, they said. Several new global trade issues are also on the table, including how to harness the digital economy to boost trade and competitiveness, and how to capture the benefits of “green” growth and new technologies, they said.